Kerry visits Switzerland for talks with Russian counterpart

Saudi Arabia insists politicians and fighters chosen in Riyadh should form the sole opposition team while Russian Federation supports the demand for independent representation of the US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance based in Syria’s northern Hasakeh province.

Some issues remain to be sorted out before peace talks on Syria takes place later this month, the USA said Tuesday.

Kerry’s trip to Europe comes days after he sealed the implementation of a landmark nuclear deal with Iran in Austria.

“We’re not unmindful of the fact that there still remains differences of opinion, and that this is a complicated process”, Kirby said. Ban’s appeal came as the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, briefed the Security Council on his efforts to get the talks started and the leaders of Russian Federation and Qatar met in Moscow to try to narrow their differences.

The Syrian government has called for broad opposition representation and has said it would not attend if figures from factions Damascus considers “terrorist” are included in the Saudi-formed delegation, notably the Saudi-patronised Army of Islam and Ahrar al-Sham, which cooperates with al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra.

“Kirby noted the United States government wanted Russian Federation to continue to use its influence to” move the Syrian peace process forward.

“The Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon] urges those countries to redouble efforts to reach that agreement”.

United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the United Nations is focusing on starting the talks on January 25, but he said it can’t send out invitations until the key countries agree on an opposition list.

The conflict has left more than 250,000 people dead and led millions to flee their homes.

Kerry’s spokesman, John Kirby, said Kerry and Lavrov discussed “the importance of maintaining progress toward a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria”.

“The Syrian opposition is the party which decides who represents it in the talks, and the higher committee that emerged from the Riyadh conference is the concerned party and they are the ones who decide who represents them in the talks”, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said in Riyadh.

Russia’s military intervention in Syria is finally generating gains on the ground for Syrian government forces, tilting the battlefield in favor of President Bashar al-Assad to such an extent that the Obama administration’s quest for a negotiated settlement to the war suddenly looks a lot less likely to succeed.

“As long as the basic question of Assad’s future is not resolved there will be no elections – it’s the central issue”, said Rami Khouri of the American University of Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs.